After Muted Triumphs at Home, Obama Seeks Progress Abroad

The White House arguably had one of its best weeks in what seems like a very long time. Yet you’d hardly know it.

That’s mainly because after the fierce, partisan battles of the last five years, President Barack Obama‘s victories now often manifest the status quo.

It’s a reality that seems set to define Mr. Obama’s domestic legislative agenda for the remainder of his term, and one he probably would have found hard to imagine during his 2008 campaign. As a candidate, Mr. Obama regularly chastised the “status quo.” Now his White House sometimes considers it a triumph.

There are two cases in point from this week: the debt limit and the health-care law.

The House and Senate also passed a so-called clean debt-limit increase, meaning it came with no legislative demands or spending cuts attached that Republicans have insisted on in the past. There were no eleventh-hour negotiations or default countdown clocks like in previous battles. The votes happened pretty much drama-free, save some remarkable GOP infighting in the Senate.

A White House that spent much of its energy, and political capital, in 2013 trying to create that very scenario had a relatively stoic reaction. “An end to that kind of brinksmanship for now is a very welcome thing,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said before adding: “It says something about the expectations that the American people have of Congress that people notice when Congress actually doesn’t do direct harm to the economy.”

Yet in another sign it’s a second term, the status quo that the White House claims as a victory at home falls short of Mr. Obama’s foreign-policy goals.

That’s in part why the president is spending Valentine’s Day on a sprawling Palm Springs, Calif., resort with plans for multiple rounds of golf and some quality time with…the king of Jordan.

Mr. Obama is beginning to turn his sights on foreign policy more than we’ve seen recently. It’s a typical shift for presidents in their final years in office. But for Mr. Obama, it may be the one area where he can achieve significant goals.

In September, during a speech at the United Nations, Mr. Obama outlined his top three focal points on foreign policy in his second term – Iran, Syria and Middle East peace.

Now that U.S. policy with each has reached an important moment – talks with Iran over a long-term nuclear deal begin next week, a deadline is approaching in Middle East peace talks, and Syria continues to deteriorate – the president plans to get more personally involved in the process.

That’s where King Abdullah II of Jordan comes in. He’s Mr. Obama’s first in a string of sit-downs with leaders from the region.

Mr. Obama has little to hope for in a robust legislative agenda this year, particularly now that House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) has cast doubt on any passage of immigration reform. The White House’s emphasis on executive action so far hasn’t yielded the kind of major change Mr. Obama initially arrived in Washington promising.

He’s expected to get more aggressive in his use of executive action, and is likely to attempt big strides on climate change. But in the meantime, he’s often content with the status quo.

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